“It’s an awesome feeling to be recognized for your work, I worked hard, it’s a good feeling,” said Sridhar of winning the scholarship.

The Davidson Institute for Talent Development awarded 20 students from across the country with scholarships for projects in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, literature, music and philosophy. The Davidson Institute has awarded more than $7.1 million over 17 years to more than 300 students.

Scholarships are awarded based on “significant work” in the chosen category. Sridhar’s scholarship was granted based on a study he submitted in which he explores the diagnosis and therapy for cardiac disease.

In his project, Sridhar said in the therapeutic aspect he used an injectable hydrogel, which mimics the heart’s micro-environment, to anchor and nourish stem cells to parts of the heart which allows them to enable cardiac regeneration.

The second part of the project focused on diagnosis, and Sridhar sought to create algorithms and computational models that would allow doctors to diagnose the health of cardiac tissue using only imagines and videos of a sample of tissue. He was able to test and experiment with his hydrogels as well as with work with stem cells from his time working over the summer at Stanford University’s School of Medicine.

“I was part of a summer project…which pairs high school seniors with Stanford faculty to do my research project,” he said.

Sridhar added that he was motivated to do his project by a history of heart disease in his family and he wanted to develop less invasive ways of diagnosis and therapy.

“I wanted to create a platform to enhance therapeutic and diagnostic aspects. I wanted to make the process less expensive and invasive,” said Sridhar, adding that he hopes his work could have the potential to lead to better diagnostics and therapy for patients in developing countries.

He is attending classes in UC Berkeley’s M.E.T. program. He is double majoring in computer science and business administration. He hopes to become a tech entrepreneur.

Victoria Kezra is a reporter covering Sunnyvale. She is a Syracuse University alumna and has previously written for The Syracuse New Times, The Daily Beast and The Jerusalem Post. She never seems to have enough milk in her house.

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